Overall the review is good. The reviewer seemed to be giving an endorsement for the iPad. This was done before the story of the latest iPhone OS having the capability of running more than one native ap came out today.

He did report one thing that is disappointing. The camera adapter kit has two inputs. One is for a USB and the other is for an SD card. The USB input will not work for anything other than a camera. I was hoping it would work with a standard Apple keyboard. I also was expecting that it would work for data storage either by USB or SD card. The sales person at 1 800 MYAPPLE didn't know if external storage was possible without another computer. He will inquire with the iPad tech support people and send the answer to me via e-mail.

I really don't want to spend the money to get the 64 GB model. There must be a way to utilize external storage without an external computer. Mobile Me or whatever it is called now isn't worth the price for use as a storage location. It would be to slow compared to a USB thumb drive and it would require internet access.

I want to keep a thumb drive or flash card for movies, one card for business presentations and video lectures, one for all of my word processing from iWork, and one just for photos. Photos from my camera are one thing, but I also save interesting images from the internet too. I would like to have a way to store those onto memory sticks.

The ability to have external storage will eventually be a necessity for everybody no matter which size drive they purchase with their iPad. With the ability to utilize external storage cards the iPad could be a stand alone device not dependent on a second computer, whether it be a Mac, PC, or Linux device.

I do think of the iPad as a computer replacement for me. The only thing I do to tax my Mac Book is editing movies in iMovie. Everything else I do can be handled with an iPad. With Keynote on the iPad I'll become a presentation creating maniac.

I kind of think of thumb drives like floppy disks. Yes, you have a lot of them and organize them but what you really need is a big hard drive. With that thought in mind I don't think that Apple will be doing anything to make it work as it is not part of their vision. They would much rather sell a bigger iPad or rely more on MobileMe. That being said, keep an eye out for a jailbreak type application that would add thumb drive support.

I love to use products of Apple because it has uniqueness and its products gives enjoyment and flexibility of using. iPad is the latest invention of Apple and I have heard that Apple has sold thousands of iPad on the launching day only._________________m3 real

I sent mine back waiting for a replacement I went 16gb for a couple of reasons. I was gonna up the gigs while I had the chance, but I thought well I can just juggle and manage what I need on it in itunes. Not have everything on it all at once. Plus I will get the second gen one when it comes out so no sense in spending more than I have to on it. Summer is approaching I need money for other things. You can email photos to your desktop, laptop whatever you want, or any email account.

If you return one for a refund there is a restocking fee which is 10 percent. This makes you want to get it right the first time around. If you sent it back thinking you would save on a refurb its not gonna happen. That's what I was thinking.

Today I had time to go to a local Apple retailer and see an iPad in person for the first time. I don't know if I was unimpressed by the iPad or because the store had a bad WiFi connection.

The size was just fine and many videos from Youtube played well. Video from CNN was from their mobile app that is based on the iPhone. That meant to watch things in a larger format required using the 2X button which showed off the poor pixel doubling.

ABC TV shows looked good. They have done a great job of incorporating video into the iPad. If all other sites would do that then the iPad would suit me right now.

The store network blocked all social networking sites because they don't want their employees using them. This was detrimental to my test run with the iPad. I wanted to see just how such sites worked with the iPad. My web site looked good except the video I have hosted at MySpace.com didn't appear. There was just an empty white space. There was no little blue icon at all.

The screen resolution didn't look too good using some videos. If I had plenty of time to examine it and compare identical videos on different screens then I could tell just how good it is relative to other screens. For example; I saw some fast motion on one video that seemed a bit lacking in frames per second. Was that due to the WiFi connection or was the video filmed at too few frames per second? Maybe the iPad just isn't up to the challenge of fast video. Either way some fast motion seemed to be on the edge of jittery.

Static text looked fine. It even looked good while pages were being scrolled.

The weight of the iPad isn't really too much to hold. The problem is because the weight is so concentrated into a thin device. I have a textbook that weighs about five pounds (I hate it). It is comfortable to hold because it is very thick. An iPad would be much more comfortable to hold if it had a thicker padded case surrounding it.

I didn't go into Keynote though it was loaded. I did use the notepad to type a message. It was easy and I could get accustomed to using a touch screen keyboard. It would need to be mounted on an angled stand or sitting on my lap for me to type much faster than using the hunt and peck method.

The salesman said that he had found an app that allowed downloading files into an external hard drive. That would be a great tool to have with an iPad.

In the photos section I was disappointed that I couldn't rearrange the photos within an album. Perhaps it was locked or needs a special command to enable such moves. I would be disappointed if I couldn't rearrange images within each album. Somebody needs to let me know about that one.

Another thing that was disappointing was I couldn't find streaming radio within iTunes or the iPod apps. Where is it? I stream audio all the time when at home. The only times I don't stream audio is when I'm watching videos. I have many customized radio station lists within iTunes. Perhaps if I were signed in to iTunes there would have been a radio selection. At the store I didn't sign-in to iTunes. Somebody let me know about this one too.

Right now I still intend to get an iPad in the Fall with the new OS 4. By then I'll have had all of my questions answered and will know if an iPad will suit my needs. There will also be more apps to use with it. One or two more trips to the local retailer with some prepared tasks is in order. Who knows, by Fall the competition might have something just as interesting available.